Greetings,
88 325iS e30 w/ 160,000k
5 months ago I recently replaced my T-belt, tensioner, cap & rotor, T-stat, drive belts, muffler, cam-shaft seal, crank sensor, spark plugs, AFM, water pump and radiator fluid. The car has been rock solid with plenty of power until four days ago. I really do mean that it was running excellent. Nice idle and power.
But then I took it on a trip to the store recently, parked it, and when I got back to my car with my groceries, I started it up, and noticed that it felt like it was suddenly running on 5 cylinders. So, with the car running, I pulled of each spark plug cap, one at a time to see if I could find a dead cylinder. No luck, all cylinders were firing, even if badly.
At present, the car is idling badly and shakes the car slightly from the vibration. it also stutters/hesitates badly when revving off idle too, but it does not die.
A stomp test (pressing the accelerator pedal 5 times) revealed nothing. The "check light" blinked a 1444 - No Faults
Basically, I just didn't feel like attempting to diagnose it any more myself after trying for a couple of hours. So, I hesitantly took it to an independent shop down the street from me.
I brought a list of all the parts I had recently replaced, (see above) and gave it to the mechanic, then I suggested that he might want to check out the O2 sensor, TPS, cat, and motor mounts. He basically just cut me off mid-sentence, blathering over me telling me that I needed new park plug wires. So, stupidly, I authorized him to do it, even though I expressed doubt to him that new spark plug wires would not fix the problem.
The next day I get a call from the customer service girl that my car was ready. I went to pick it up, and asked him to start it for me. The car still ran like shit! Just as bad as when I brought it to him. He tried to tell me that it was running a little better, but did concede that it still needed work, duh! I asked him why he said it ready to pick up when it obviously wasn't. He said that he couldn't read the future and know exactly what was wrong with my car, and that his close friend had died. I expressed my condolences.
I also asked him if he had performed any of the tests that I had suggested when I dropped the car off. He said he didn't need to do the tests, because none of those things were the problem, as if he had some sort of psychic ability.
Here's the bad part, the shop charged me $460 to install new spark plug wires. I know the wires are expensive, roughly $200, but I need to know if the labor sounds too high or if this is a major rip-off. Even if their labor rate was $100 an hour, it seems to me that I'm still paying double that. I doesn't take two hours to put spark plug wires on a car. It takes about 15 minutes.
Ideally I want them to put my old spark plug wires back on my car and just charge me for the labor. Is this realistic?
Lastly, my final question concerns the fact that now they say my car needs a valve adjustment. Is this another waste of time? Does my car even need a valve adjustment? If I have to get huffy with them, can anybody recommend some good tactics for dealing with shady mechanics? I don't like confrontation, but I'll stand up for myself when I need to. This upcoming, inevitable confrontation has been stressing me out all weekend. And my car still runs like shit.
I haven't picked up my car from the shop yet. Any advice is welcome from the knowledgeable members of this board.
thanks,
Hairfarm
88 325iS e30 w/ 160,000k
5 months ago I recently replaced my T-belt, tensioner, cap & rotor, T-stat, drive belts, muffler, cam-shaft seal, crank sensor, spark plugs, AFM, water pump and radiator fluid. The car has been rock solid with plenty of power until four days ago. I really do mean that it was running excellent. Nice idle and power.
But then I took it on a trip to the store recently, parked it, and when I got back to my car with my groceries, I started it up, and noticed that it felt like it was suddenly running on 5 cylinders. So, with the car running, I pulled of each spark plug cap, one at a time to see if I could find a dead cylinder. No luck, all cylinders were firing, even if badly.
At present, the car is idling badly and shakes the car slightly from the vibration. it also stutters/hesitates badly when revving off idle too, but it does not die.
A stomp test (pressing the accelerator pedal 5 times) revealed nothing. The "check light" blinked a 1444 - No Faults
Basically, I just didn't feel like attempting to diagnose it any more myself after trying for a couple of hours. So, I hesitantly took it to an independent shop down the street from me.
I brought a list of all the parts I had recently replaced, (see above) and gave it to the mechanic, then I suggested that he might want to check out the O2 sensor, TPS, cat, and motor mounts. He basically just cut me off mid-sentence, blathering over me telling me that I needed new park plug wires. So, stupidly, I authorized him to do it, even though I expressed doubt to him that new spark plug wires would not fix the problem.
The next day I get a call from the customer service girl that my car was ready. I went to pick it up, and asked him to start it for me. The car still ran like shit! Just as bad as when I brought it to him. He tried to tell me that it was running a little better, but did concede that it still needed work, duh! I asked him why he said it ready to pick up when it obviously wasn't. He said that he couldn't read the future and know exactly what was wrong with my car, and that his close friend had died. I expressed my condolences.
I also asked him if he had performed any of the tests that I had suggested when I dropped the car off. He said he didn't need to do the tests, because none of those things were the problem, as if he had some sort of psychic ability.
Here's the bad part, the shop charged me $460 to install new spark plug wires. I know the wires are expensive, roughly $200, but I need to know if the labor sounds too high or if this is a major rip-off. Even if their labor rate was $100 an hour, it seems to me that I'm still paying double that. I doesn't take two hours to put spark plug wires on a car. It takes about 15 minutes.
Ideally I want them to put my old spark plug wires back on my car and just charge me for the labor. Is this realistic?
Lastly, my final question concerns the fact that now they say my car needs a valve adjustment. Is this another waste of time? Does my car even need a valve adjustment? If I have to get huffy with them, can anybody recommend some good tactics for dealing with shady mechanics? I don't like confrontation, but I'll stand up for myself when I need to. This upcoming, inevitable confrontation has been stressing me out all weekend. And my car still runs like shit.
I haven't picked up my car from the shop yet. Any advice is welcome from the knowledgeable members of this board.
thanks,
Hairfarm